Broken
by illyna
Summary: Set after the game, Seifer has gone insane. Can anyone help him?


Broken  
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The spell that he was under,  
The lightning and the thunder,  
Meant that someone had to stop the pain…  
  
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The thick sheet of toughened Perspex shuddered as he threw his entire body weight against it, jarring every nerve of her being. He viscously snarled at her, through the transparent partition that separated them, lips drawn back over gaunt gums, spittle flying, brow creased. His green eyes, once so devastatingly charming weapon against every girl in winking distance were glazed and manic. Gone was the Seifer of old, and left in his place was this overly violent, walking corpse.  
  
Again, and then again he pounded, with any part of his body that he could worm free from his confines. His hands were useless, bound behind his back by the cream and leather straightjacket. His head seemed to be the major weapon of choice, the battering ram with which he vented his frustrations. She watched, most of her soul horrified, yet still with a morbid fascination, as a hairline trickle of blood ran down from his nostril, and sought refuge at the corner of his mouth.  
  
The low moaning that had emanated from him throughout the short visit started to magnetise into actual words. Words which made little or no sense. He groaned and moaned with such aplomb, yet the white suited attendants around her ignored his cries, seemingly unmoved, or simply used to his behaviour. She strained her ears, trying to hear what he was trying to say through the haze of drugs that had been pumped into him to make him more amenable. She hated to think what he would be like if this were how he reacted in controlled conditions.  
  
"…Dreams…knight…protect," he murmured, almost rasping over the last word. She leaned closer, trying to catch the almost inaudible phrases that were punctuated with sobs, placing both her hands on the glass. Closer still…  
  
"SORCERESS!" His head jerked up suddenly, eyes wide open, whites lined with red, pupils dilated fully. He stared right at her, his body shaking and stiff. She reacted as if scolded, jumping back and tearing her hands from the glass.  
  
The condensation marks left by her fingers faded almost immediately, until no trace of her being near the glass remained. Seifer quietened down, and hunkered back to the far side of his cell. Curling himself up into a ball, knees tucked tightly to his chest, he sat watching the observation window. Observing the observer.  
  
She didn't hear the door crack open behind her, or the figure approach her shoulder.  
  
"I knew you'd come." A quiet voice told her. Startled, she turned to see who her new companion was.  
  
"Fujin," she greeted warily.   
  
"Rinoa," Fujin nodded awkwardly back. Both women turned back to contemplate the fallen figure inside the cell.  
  
Fujin placed herself right next to the partition, where Rinoa had formerly been, and pressed her forehead against the cool pane. She spread her fingers flat, as if she could push her way through the division, and go to comfort him.  
  
She had lost weight, and grown even paler if that was possible, Rinoa contemplated to herself. She was always small and nimble, a grey blur, she had called her privately, when they had first met the year before. That summer fling, she and Seifer, seemed a lifetime away now. So much had happened since then. So many fights, revelations, changes.  
  
She and Fujin had never seen eye to eye, even back then. Fujin was always overprotective of the leader of the Disciplinary Committee, a fierceness that belied her silent appearance. Rinoa had always secretly thought that the silver haired girl probably had feelings for Seifer herself. But of course, Seifer, being the arrogant bastard that he was had never cottoned onto this fact, and trampled on, dating many women regardless.  
  
Now, it seemed, the only woman he was left with was the one that had been there for him all the time. Fujin seemed to be comfortable in her surroundings, and with the staff around her. How many times had she visited, stood there, watching over him silently? Rinoa felt a sudden pang of sympathy for the girl; she deserved more from her life than this. More than watching over him.  
  
"Where's Raijin?" She questioned gently. The loud, but gentle giant was never usually far away from the rest of his posse. Rinoa half expected to see him come bursting through the double doors behind her at any second.  
  
Instead, Fujin turned her head so she could fix Rinoa with her one good eye. It drilled through her like a laser beam at full intensity. She shook her head silently.  
  
"LEFT." She finally grated out, dropping back into her staccato way of speaking. A crease marred her brow at the uneasy subject.  
  
A mild wave of shock passed through Rinoa as she digested this new information. "I didn't think he would ever leave you two…" she trailed off uncertainly.  
  
"HE." Fujin stopped as she realised more than single words would be needed. "I mean, I, well, I told him to go. He's working as a security guard over in Timber. There was no point of both of us waiting here for Seifer to get better. I wont leave him" The last line was said with a trace of blind faith, but Rinoa saw the tiredness behind the one garnet eye.  
  
Fujin turned back to the glass, trembling slightly as if the very effort of speaking had drained her. Seifer had closed his eyes now, and was rocking back and forth on his heels, whistling through his teeth.  
  
It was minutes before either of them spoke again, as they stood there watching the broken knight.  
  
"Is he always like this?" Rinoa wondered, gesturing at his prone form.  
  
"Sometimes he's better, just like the old Seifer. But mostly…" Fujin's voice cracked under the strain, "He doesn't know me. He doesn't know himself anymore, all he has is this deluded fantasy of being a knight." She wheeled to Rinoa in desperation. "She took his dreams, she made him believe he was something else, and now he's trapped, and he can't get out. She turned him into a puppet, and when the hold was broken, there was nothing left except what she created…"  
  
Her eye looked at Rinoa pleadingly, tearfully. "But you're a sorceress too. Can't you try and help him? That's why you came isn't it? To help him?" Fujin took a step closer in desperation. "I knew you'd come eventually, they all have. But I was waiting for you…"  
  
It was the longest speech Rinoa had ever heard Fujin make. She now understood why there was a little hope still left in the girl, who stood before her hands clasped, and head down, in an almost begging posture.  
  
Her glance shifted once again toward Seifer, who hadn't moved an inch. In herself, she didn't know if she could even try and undo the cruelty of the future sorceress. Ultimecia had so much more control than she had, and she didn't even know what she was capable of herself yet. A wave of apprehension hit her.  
  
But still she reached a hand forward, opened her mind toward him, sending forward a wave of light, a surge of feathers, and images of better times. In her mind's eye she called to him, looked for him inside of his own head.  
  
"Seifer? Where are you? Its time to come home…"  
  
The blackness hit her like a wall. It was insurmountable and huge. It crashed down on top of her, suffocating her with its inky darkness. It ran over her face, pouring down her throat, and curdling her insides.  
  
From somewhere, she heard a terrified scream, and instinctively she knew it was Seifer. He was in there somewhere, trapped in the web of desolation that Ultimecia had created.  
  
She struggled, and found herself being drawn deeper in. With a start of realisation she realised that she couldn't help him, and she herself was getting more endangered as she delved into his psyche. She just didn't have the control to dig him, and herself out.  
  
She wrenched herself free.  
  
And opened her eyes to a concerned Fujin, who was leaning over her, as she lay slumped against a wall.  
  
"I'm sorry, Fujin, I'm so sorry, I couldn't help him…" Rinoa stuttered. "He was there, but I couldn't reach him. Maybe in a few more months, I can try again, I'll be stronger then." The very thought of venturing back into the depraved mind made her almost retch. The experience had repulsed her.  
  
Fujin, crumpled, and slid to the ground next to her. Rinoa saw the change in her posture; the weariness that she had been staving off had now enveloped Fujin. Rinoa had been her last hope, her last desperate grab at bringing back the old Seifer.  
  
Rinoa grasped at her hand. It was small, and cold and clammy. Fujin was staring into space, at nothing in particular, although Rinoa knew she was probably somewhere in the past, reminiscing about better times.  
  
She pulled herself to her feet. "There was nothing I could do, maybe we can try again in a while."  
  
Fujin glanced up at her, a single tear running down her cheek. There was now an air of hopelessness around her, cloaking her soul. She remained silent. She knew that Rinoa would never attempt to help Seifer again; she had seen the sheer terror on her face when she had tried, the whimpers that had emanated from her mouth, saw her clawing at the air desperately.  
  
"There was nothing I could do" Rinoa repeated, more for her own benefit than Fujin's.  
  
The words rang hollow, and stuck in Rinoa's head as she escaped from the claustrophobic room into the bright Esthar sunlight. And she couldn't quite shake the feeling that behind her she had now left not just one, but two broken souls.  
  
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Okay, here it is, my entry into the "make Seifer mad" challenge posted on the CBB. I think it turned out okay, but hey, let me know what YOU think. Reviews make me happy, okay?  
  
As usual Squaresoft owns all the good stuff. I just have the insanity to call my own. The lyrics at the beginning come from the song "Janie's got a gun" by Aerosmith, and not me!  
  
Happy reading!  



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